Official Report: search what was said in Parliament
The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
The Official Report search offers lots of different ways to find the information you’re looking for. The search is used as a professional tool by researchers and third-party organisations. It is also used by members of the public who may have less parliamentary awareness. This means it needs to provide the ability to run complex searches, and the ability to browse reports or perform a simple keyword search.
Searching by different views
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
- Report: this is the whole Official Report for a particular meeting of a committee or Parliament
- Item of business: this is each individual agenda item in an Official Report. For example, Portfolio Questions would be the item of business in a Meeting of the Parliament report
- Contribution: this is each time someone has made a spoken contribution to a meeting.
Depending on the kind of search you want to do, one of these views will be the best option. The default view is to show the report for each meeting of Parliament or a committee. For a simple keyword search, the results will be shown by item of business.
Search by MSP
When you choose to search by a particular MSP, the results returned will show each spoken contribution in Parliament or a committee, ordered by date with the most recent contributions first. This will usually return a lot of results, but you can refine your search by keyword, date and/or by meeting (committee or Chamber business).
We’ve chosen to display the entirety of each MSP’s contribution in the search results. This is intended to reduce the number of times that users need to click into an actual report to get the information that they’re looking for, but in some cases it can lead to very short contributions (“Yes.”) or very long ones (Ministerial statements, for example.) We’ll keep this under review and get feedback from users on whether this approach best meets their needs.
Searching by keyword
There are two types of keyword search:
- A keyword search without quotation marks will look for every instance of each word used and rank the results by frequency and proximity. It will also include variants of the keywords using “porter stemming”. This is when the search looks for the “stem” of a word regardless of its ending. So, for example, a search for [salmon farm] will return each instance of “salmon” and each instance of “farm” as well as potentially including results for “farms”, “farmed” and “farming”.
- A keyword search with quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase used. So, for example, a search for “salmon farm” in quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase.
Combining search filters
If you select an MSP’s name from the dropdown menu, and add a phrase in quotation marks to the keyword field, then the search will return only examples of when the MSP said those exact words. You can further refine this search by adding a date range or selecting a particular committee or Meeting of the Parliament.
More complex keyword searches
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
- a search for “salmon farm” AND “Loch Lomond” will return only results which include both exact phrases
- a search for “salmon farm” NOT “Loch Lomond” will return results for “salmon farm” but exclude results which also include “Loch Lomond”
- a search for “salmon farm” OR “Loch Lomond” will return all results for “salmon farm” and all results for “Loch Lomond” regardless of whether they appear together
Searching by date
There are two ways of searching by date.
You can either use the Start date and End date options to run a search across a particular date range. For example, you may know that a particular subject was discussed at some point in the last few weeks and choose a date range to reflect that.
Alternatively, you can use one of the pre-defined date ranges under “Select a time period”. These are:
- Current session (all Official Reports since the current sessions started)
- Last 6 months
- Last 12 months
- each of the previous sessions of Parliament. (Selecting the information icon above the “Select a time period” menu will give you the exact dates for each session.)
- All sessions
- You can also choose to select a custom date range, although adding a Start or End date will mean the search automatically defaults to this option.
If you search by an individual session, the list of MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs and committees will update to show the information that was current at that time.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
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Displaying 893 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
I recall saying last week that the support that the University of Dundee will receive from the SFC—whether at the £15 million level or a lesser amount, through that financial transactions funding—is designed to provide it with the breathing space to allow it to bring forward an appropriate financial recovery plan. None of us has ever suggested that this money alone will resolve the issues at the University of Dundee. It will allow it time to work with the SFC—because the SFC will have oversight of its financial recovery plan—and its staff, who will also need to be engaged in this, to come up with a way forward that returns the university to a sustainable footing.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
On the one hand, I understand why it feels that way to the staff, what with all the uncertainty. On the other, we would all expect proper diligence to be at play here as the university, under its new finance director, absolutely bottoms out the scale of the problem and the nature of how it got there, and comes up with a plan that is actually robust. My understanding, Mr Rennie, is that the internal engagement—if I can put it that way—on the shape of the recovery should begin next week.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
What I have said to you, Mr Ross, is that the criteria for the distribution of those moneys will be set by the SFC—
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
Your point about early service leavers is a very good and obvious one. Earlier, Mr Mason asked about access to information so that people can make an informed decision and understand how to progress to university. As you well know, Mr Brown, getting information about what is open to early service leavers, in particular, can be very challenging.
I think that 10 universities have signed up to the armed forces covenant—I saw the numbers just yesterday—but I accept your point that there is another way to join. A number of other universities take account of military service in their approach.
The honest answer is, as is the case with many things relating to the veterans community, that we probably do not do enough. Your line of questioning last week prompted me to commission a piece of work that will look more closely at whether we are doing enough to ensure that our universities are alive to their responsibilities—if that is the right word—in the context of veterans.
When individuals transition out of the armed services, it is incumbent on the military to equip them with the information that they require. We both know that the situation has improved over recent years, but it is not perfect. I will undertake—outwith the committee’s inquiry, because the work will take a bit of time—to write to Mr Brown and the committee with some detail on that issue, because he has set something in train.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
I was laughing during that question at the idea that I do not expect my officials to act with urgency on pretty much every topic. They would probably laugh at that idea, too.
I understand the thrust of your argument in that, as a society, we seemed to be able to act with urgency during the pandemic, but I do not think that we have necessarily lapsed back into a less urgent approach. There is a lot to be done, and all that I can offer is the assurance that everything that sits in my portfolio is a priority.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
Thanks for that.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
I should say that the new UK veterans minister has been excellent to deal with thus far. I will add that issue to the conversation list for the next time we meet. There is a genuine and positive relationship between us and the UK Government on the subject. We are all committed to doing the right thing by our armed forces community.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
My reading is that it would depend on the nature of the data sharing involved.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
But there are restrictions on that. My understanding is that people, institutions and organisations can share information with the Government, but there might be an issue with regard to whom the Government can then share that data with. It is a complex landscape—frustratingly so in an instance such as this, in which we all know what we would like to do.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Graeme Dey
Indeed. That is why we are looking at a basket of measures. The forum has opened the opportunity for everyone to throw in their ideas from an informed position, and we have had additional input, including from Liam McArthur, relating to rural areas.
Following the experience of the past nine years, we understand better the areas in which the approach has gaps. The question is now how we address them. Data sharing is part of that, but there is more to it. In order to capture more students, some universities use contextual admission policies, but others do not share that practice, which is particularly troubling in rural areas. What do we do in that space? I absolutely get the issue. I offer you the reassurance that we are now much more alive to the full range of challenges and are intent on addressing them.
